First Day!

Today was my first day interning at the Dallas Zoo.

I worked with the head zookeeper of the Forest Aviary and the Yellow Weaver exhibit. My main job for the day was cleaning the exhibits and feeding the multiple birds in both of the exhibits.
When I first arrived at the Zoo, the zoo keepers in Barn 8 (one of the many barns that contain different birds from around the zoo) showed me around the barn and introduced me to the different birds in holding. Most of the birds in holding are there because they are either sick, injured, taking care of their chicks, or there is no place at the moment in the exhibits for them. Some of the birds in Barn 8 were three cranes and a Silver Cheeked Hornbill. The Silver Cheeked Hornbill has joint and back problems and the cranes were taking care of their massive baby, who wasn't the nicest bird on the block.

Silver Cheeked Hornbill

They also showed me the incubating eggs and explained to me that when the chick is ready, they go into a section of the egg called the air cell, where they begin to breathe oxygen. Once they run out of oxygen, the carbon monoxide omissions trigger a muscle twitch in the chick's neck, causing it to begin to crack the egg open.

After the tour of Barn 8, I traveled to the Forest Aviary and the Yellow Weaver exhibits and helped prepare the birds meals for the day. We cut up different ingredients to place in bowls in according to the different diets of all the different birds in the exhibits. Their diets mainly consisted of wet pellets, fruit, raw shredded beef, baby mice, a variety of seeds, lettuce, sardines, rice, and different sizes of mealworms. Some pretty nasty (and smelly) stuff...  We then placed these bowls of food around the exhibits. We then power washed a majority of the Forest Aviary, cleaning up the never ending spots of bird poop that was everywhere.

Mealworms

Baby Mice

At the Yellow Weaver Exhibit, we replaced the food from last night with fresher food, using the same ingredients. Before we started spray washing the exhibit, the zookeeper I was following noticed a baby Weaver on the floor of the exhibit. We chased it around until the zookeeper finally caught it. After catching it, she handed it to me so she could put a band around it's leg. When I was holding it, it felt like it was humming because it's heart beat was so fast. I was so excited being able to hold a chick, until i felt a wetness in my hand and realized that this cute chick just pooped in my hand. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I also made friends in the Weaver Exhibit with this one Blue- Bellied Roller that kept flying at my head and grabbing my ponytail.

Yellow Weaver

After we were finished cleaning the Weaver Exhibit, I was done for the day and headed back to Barn 6, said my goodbyes and headed home!